The Work Itself as a Motivator.

For decades, management and leadership theorists have proposed the concept that employee motivation is based upon several factors, including interpersonal relationships, organizational effects, and the work itself. Such theories have de-emphasized the importance of other, longer-held theories about employee motivation, such as salary, benefits, and working conditions. From a motivational standpoint, viewing the work itself as a motivational device usually has depended on internal motives (intrinsic rewards) concerning the type of work employees engage in and their personal beliefs about the work they perform. Amid all material published concerning the phenomenon of motivating employees in the workplace, very little addresses how managers can use employees' work to enhance their professional confidence or how managers can use that work experience to help motivate employees toward better quality work or productivity.

Some individuals believe that police work requires personal motivation, self-pride, professional satisfaction, and individual expectations. By capturing these effects of personal motivations, officers could promote a deeper commitment to their organization and possibly enhance their career. Douglas McGregor's X and Y theories view employees as either self-motivated and hard working (Theory Y) or mindless, lazy employees who must be coerced into doing their jobs (Theory X). [1] These theories persuaded managers at the Pulaski, Tennessee, Police Department that something that glorified employees at their daily work, while performing routine activities, would serve as a powerful internal motivational force that the department could capitalize upon for wide-spread, long-term organizational benefit. However, the methodology used to accomplish this feat proved the most difficult part of the concept to create.

In educational sessions, leadership theorists cite the intrinsic value of work as one of the significant motivational features of an employment environment, but they provide very little, if anything, to guide managers to successfully accomplish this. How can managers take the work itself and use it as a motivational tool? Traditionally, most theorists suggest using rewards or some type of accolade. This approach has given rise to the dramatic increase in performance and excellence awards. However, managers often encounter problems when implementing these types of approaches. Albeit powerful motivational tools, they contain many drawbacks inherent in their application. For example, equity issues occur in a variety of forms complicating the process, such as commonly held values prove difficult to define, organizational concerns may arise, and personality-based issues sometimes make recognition awards impractical. Some employee merit systems even praise undeserving employees for substandard efforts--at least in the eyes of the recipient's peers. Reward/recognition programs of these types usually suffer reversals of intended effect via employee cynicism and a host of creative work reversals.

Police managers should avoid these pitfalls to positively influence employees within their organization. How can a manager use the work employees perform to laud its inherent values, use it to help reinforce the organizational values, and provide first-rate service to the community? The answer to this complex question lies within a single concept--that managers could harness the initial motivations that brought their employees into the service of law enforcement and, thus, provide a continual motivational drive.

THE PULASKI EXPERIENCE

The Pulaski Police Department tried a unique attempt to take "work itself' at face value, capture it on video, and produce it in a valorous presentation to help increase employee motivation. In the past, the media has used sporting events to glamorize certain events and people with great impact. Department managers believed that if portraying sporting-event figures and participants in such dramatic postures, relating to their employment, has such an effect on the participants and those viewing the presentations, then using the same premise in relation to law enforcement personnel should have an equally beneficial result.

Production

Over a 9-month period, a reserve officer made candid videotapes of department personnel during their routine workdays. These videos ranged from field events to office work, from actual operations to organized events of fellowship. Additionally, the officer captured video of a regularly scheduled department meeting, which focused on different individuals as they participated in the meeting.

The photographer also took video of the city and used it for the introductory portion of the tape, accompanied by inspirational background music. The video presentation was divided into segments of each shift depicting a freeze-frame of officers with a caption of their rank and date of service. Following the still-shot segment, the producer included several vignettes of each officer involved in normal work activities. The videotape ended with a list of all employees, their assignments, and an inspiring message on life.

Presentation

The video made its debut at the end of the year at an annual holiday party for all of the employees and their families. Managers noticed the effect from the outset; department personnel displayed markedly visible emotional reactions as the tape played. Managers presented all officers with a personal copy of the "video yearbook" and told them that it served as tangible proof of their significance and importance to the agency.

Evaluation

The film achieved more than being merely a video yearbook. Taken at its face value, the video serves as a historical document and has accomplished its mission of increasing employee motivation as well. Initially, the tape reaffirmed the employees' importance to the agency. The fact that the department used resources to make the video not only served as a silent testimony of the officers' importance to the agency, but it also dramatized their individual role in helping the agency attain its overall mission and sustaining the overall prestige of the law enforcement profession. Both of these factors serve as strong inspirations to employees about who they are and their value to the agency. Such a strong visual presentation becomes a public recognition of the intrinsic value these employees hold in their work. The video allows officers to see themselves through the eyes of others; realize how important their work appears to others; understand how integral their contribution is to accomplishing the goals of the a gency; and recognize how vital they are to the everyday operations of the department.

On a far deeper level, the tape may serve as a personal motivator over an extended period of time. As the employees view the tape in the future, they may reenforce their own importance to the organization. Similarly, viewing the tape with friends and family members can serve to enhance the motivational effects to a much greater extent than viewing it with colleagues. Those involved in producing the video believed it would serve as a long-term motivator by reminding employees why they originally began service with the organization, or in law enforcement in general. This reminder may instill a renewed vigor to employees and to the work they perform and help maintain the highest level of professional expertise in daily operations.

Although the idea may appear very simple in concept, numerous employees have proven its impact by asking for a second copy of the tape. This was exactly the reaction that department managers had hoped to accomplish. Each time employees view the video they reinforce their initial reason for becoming police officers, as well as build loyalty to the department they serve.

For other agencies, the cost of producing a similar video cannot be valued in terms of its relationship to the potential benefits it may provide because those benefits are impossible to quantify. An agency merely needs the services of an individual with the technical skills to create such a motivational tool and to have managers who care enough about their employees to arrange the production. Even if the film does not achieve anticipated motivational goals, it can still serve as an expression of gratitude to employees from their managers. That factor itself should prove a worthy reason to create the video.

CONCLUSION

Because each employee is motivated by different stimuli, a motivational video may not benefit all employees. However, for many people working in modern organizations, such recognition of the work they perform, presented in a positive light, can serve as a beneficial, long-term motivational stimulus.

As with any profession, law enforcement officers need motivational support from their managers as well. To this end, the Pulaski, Tennessee, Police Department created a motivational video for its employees as a way to recognize their contributions to the success of the department and their value to the community they serve. The overwhelmingly positive reaction to the video justified the depart-ment's efforts. Other police managers may discover that they have little to lose from producing such a video for their departments and much to gain. In the interest of their employees, police mangers should examine new ways to motivate their officers and, more important, highlight the value of the often-seemingly unappreciated profession these men and women have chosen.

Dr. White recently retired as the assistant chief of the Pulaski, Tennessee, Police Department.

Endnote 

(1.) For further information, see Douglas McGregor, The Professional Manager (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1967).